Help!!

         Remember the insulting "help" from SSE on how it customers could keep warm this winter with the astronomical energy prices we were being ask to pay? Their heart felt advice as they ran smiling to the bank was, “doing a few star jumps”, “having a cuddle with your pets”, and eating “hearty bowls of porridge”. None of this advice would be needed by their shareholders or their CEO, they would hardly notice the price rises.
       Meanwhile, SSE made £600 million profit, Scottish Power and Centrica, owners of of British Gas, turned in a smart little profit of £423 million. These energy companies stashed away more than a billion pounds in profit before this years price hike. How much are your bills going up by?
       The bosses of the UK six biggest energy companies are the UK's highest earners. In 2018 former Centrica CEO received £2.4 million, a salary rise of 44% on his previous salary. During the first year of the pandemic, CEO of SSE Alistair Pillips-Davies was paid a tidy £1.6 million. In any given year the average CEO by 6th of January will have earned more than the average worker will all year.
        Have a good look at these figures, think of the obscene increases in profits and salaries of the energy companies and the CEO, then think of the massive price increases to you and I with our meager incomes being stretched to breaking point. Then ask yourself, should we blame the war in Ukraine or the greed infested energy companies, who are part and parcel of this system.

 

 

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info    

Solidarity.

           An appeal for solidarity and support for arrested union representatives. In certain circumstances, under this economic system of corporate capitalism, organising to get your employer to negotiate with you can be extremely dangerous. You could face harassment, beatings, arrest, imprisonment and sometimes death, as the state will always take the side of the business brigade. We can't rely on the so called laws of the land and justice, these two prongs of the state are there to protect power, wealth and privilege for the parasitical few.

 

The following from Labour Start:

A month ago, workers at NagaWorld casino hotel in Cambodia went on strike. They demanded that the management engage in good faith negotiations over the forced mass redundancy of over 1,300 workers.  Many of those workers were left destitute. Instead of talking to the union, police began arresting workers and union leaders. Two weeks ago, the union president was violently arrested on the picket line by plain clothes police.          Other union leaders were also arrested. At the moment, 8 union leaders are currently in detention.  They are all charged with incitement offences under the Criminal Code, which carry a sentence of up to 5 years imprisonment.         They are being denied access to legal representation.         The Director General of the International Labour Organisation has already expressed deep concern over the arrests and has called for the immediate release of those arrested. And now the International Union of Foodworkers (IUF) has launched an online campaign demanding that the union leaders be released from jail and the charges dropped.        Please take a moment to show your support for these brave workers, and to demand justice - click here. And please share this message with your friends, family and fellow union members. Thank you! Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Organise.

            So many strikes called by unions end up as a sell-out by the unions, they seem to see themselves as part of the system, and negotiate from that position, so I doubt they will do anything to bring the system down. The case of the striking metalworkers in Cadiz, Spain, is just another sell-out by unions. This strike not only had the support of the workers but also the support of the local community and wider afield, but the unions settled for what most consider an insulting deal. So the workers with reluctance go back feeling once again the union has sold them out to the bosses.

The following from Angry Workers:

         But the die is cast: the media celebrate the ‘agreement’ in style, and confusion and frustration, if not demoralisation, reigns.
         Nobody is happy with the agreement, but the workers come back to work resigned, treating the unions treason like business as usual. At this point, it can’t even be considered a treason anymore.
         However, the 220 CYMI workers, a Dragados subcontractor with some of the most precarious contracts with not even union representation and left out of the infamous agreement decided to keep striking for almost two weeks in total until they got rises of between 200 and 400 euros.
        There has been some more strikes all over Spain that normally end with similar results but it feels like more workers are starting to get pissed with the whole situation. The question is if the workers will find the way to self-organise in a way that allows them to put up a fight on their own terms. Some union bureaucrats are having a hard time to keep the workers in line, like this CCOO representative telling this group of cleaners that the strike has been called off and them telling him to fuck off. Instant classic.

          Perhaps the road to take for those workers wishing to take control of their conditions would be to follow the example of the Clyde Workers Committee from the Clydeside in 1915.

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info    

Organise.

          I sometimes wonder if the general public in the UK are fully aware of the tsunami that is thundering towards them. There is the energy price increase which will kill hundreds of elderly and infirm, their is the cut to universal credit, which will plunge thousands more into poverty, then there is the increase in National Insurance payments that will cut the wages of the poorest the hardest. On top of that, those in need of special care are being hit by a care system that is in dire crisis. All this while the bank accounts of millionaires and billionaires grow ever fatter and fatter. Of course it is not all being taken lying down, Stagecoach bus drivers are taking strike action over pay, care workers who have struggled to do their job under the most adverse conditions, under staffed and under paid, have decided to march to the Tory Party conference in Manchester to vent their anger.

    Before the national insurance and energy price hikes and before the slash at the universal credit, in the year 2019/20 11.7 million people, 18% of the population in the UK were in the "relative low income" category.

        Some facts and figures on Poverty in this country, one of the richest countries in the world:

The facts and figures show the reality of child poverty in the UK.

• There were 4.3 million children living in poverty in the UK in 2019-20.1 That's 31 per cent of children, or nine in a classroom of 30.2
• 49 per cent of children living in lone-parent families are in poverty.3 Lone parents face a higher risk of poverty due to the lack of an additional earner, low rates of maintenance payments, gender inequality in employment and pay, and childcare costs. 
• Children from black and minority ethnic groups are more likely to be in poverty: 46 per cent are now in poverty, compared with 26 per cent of children in White British families.4
• Work does not provide a guaranteed route out of poverty in the UK. 75 per cent of children growing up in poverty live in a household where at least one person works.5
• Children in large families are at a far greater risk of living in poverty – 47 per cent of children living in families with 3 or more children live in poverty.6 

 

         These figures are all before the present tsunami of energy price increase, and cuts, not to mention the pandemic, hits the public at large. No working class family will escape these hammer blows to their standard of living, what can we do about it? We can take a leaf out of the Stagecoach bus drivers and organise strike action, we can organise in solidarity with the care workers and take our righteous anger on to the streets. We can organise in our communities and work places to take control and shape society the way we want it, a society that sees to the needs of all our people. We don't need the millionaire/billionaire parasites and their bedfellows, prancing political ballerinas, that army of pampered privileged parasites that hold the reins of power over our lives, all to their own advantage. We don't need them, they need us, dump them, we can make a better world without them.

 

 WE THE LABOURING MASSES.

We the people have, every brick laid,
have fed the world with sweat and spade,
every instrument played in every band
created by the skill of the craftsman's hand.
We made every truck and every load,
our toil our effort every winding road,
every ship that ever sailed the sea,
our power our imagination made it be.
Cities and towns large and small,
our labouring hands fashioned them all,
every home, every spire,
luxury mansion or humble byre.
No matter what dreams the mind might spawn
without labour's hand, never see the light of dawn,
without labour's strength and labour's skill,
we would be foraging beasts in a jungle still.

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info  

Serial.

 

           For our September “Read of the Month” we at Spirit of Revolt are giving you 4 for the price of 1, except they are all free. This month its Issue 1 to 4 of the Anarchist Worker, from May/June 1979. Yes, the struggle for justice and freedom has been going on for years. Enjoy, browse and learn.

 READ on LINE:

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk    

Incompatible.

          It is now becoming ever more obvious that the system is falling apart, for generations we have been subject to our rulers rampant aggression and utter contempt, yet the populace at large, continued to hold onto that mythical thought of some sort of alliance between rulers and ruled. Now the truth is so blatantly obvious that this myth has evaporated, leaving bare the true nature of this incompatible relationship. The powerful rulers of society are aware of this now complete disconnect between ruled and ruler, aware that the illusion no longer holds, and the populace see the glaring truth. This makes them extremely dangerous, if they can’t hold onto their power by smoke and mirrors, by weaving illusions, then they will try to do so by force, we must prepare for this inevitability. The disconnect between ruled and ruler is now complete, the glaring inequality and disparity inherent in the system shows that their reality and ours is completely incompatible. 

        We the public can no longer march to their tune, no longer pick up the sword to defend their wealth, no longer shed our blood in their petty power struggles, no longer sweat our lives away cementing their privileged position. Across the globe people are showing that they have finally grasped this irrefutable truth, open rebellion is in the air. The attempted containment will become more brutal, ever increasing restrictions, ever greater surveillance, ever greater punishments for dissent. We organise in solidarity and face it full on, or we revert to that illusion that there is compatibility between rich and powerful rulers and the ruled and once again accept our serfdom, in a tighter and more frightening new world order.

 

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk     

Organise.

 

        Like the article says, "these are dark days", also very confusing, because none of us have lived through such a situation before in our life time. Also, information can be conflicting, loaded in this direction or that direction. Forces with wealth in mind pushing for "get the economy growing again" and those with concern for people's lives, "human life and wellbeing is paramount". It would be easy to cover your ears and just ride this one out, but for sure that would lead you back to the callous failed and exploitative system that brought us to this situation.  Now more than ever we have to focus on what we had, its poverty, its greed driven market economy, its perpetual struggle for a half decent life for most of us, while the few piled up unimaginable wealth and its accompanying power and privileges. That can't be on our desire for normality, we have a golden opportunity as we come together to help each other, through this nightmare, to make that the foundation of our new normal. We are learning day by day that we can organise to see to our needs, simply by co-operation and mutual aid. We should not let that desire to be part of a caring community that doesn't seek profit, just the well being of each other to disappear, and give in to the forces of the market economy. We have felt the burden of that model for centuries and the weight never lifted off our shoulders, and still the few wallowed in opulence cradled in pomp and power. That can never be our normal again. 

The following from It's Going Down:

 From SubMedia,

         These are dark days. As the COVID-19 crisis turns our world upside-down, the social isolation and atomization of capitalism has given way to full-blown social distancing. At a time when we most need to come together, we’re told that human contact can kill us. Alarm bells are flashing everywhere as the dead pile up, the economy burns, and more and more people’s mental health deteriorates. This is the most severe and far-reaching global crisis that most of us who are alive today have ever experienced. Its a terrifying, alienated, and stressful time. It’s also no time to give up. No time to turn on Netflix, bury our heads in the sand, and wait for things to pass. Certainly not for anarchists, or anyone who calls themselves a revolutionary.
       These are dark days. As the COVID-19 crisis turns our world upside-down, the social isolation and atomization of capitalism has given way to full-blown social distancing. At a time when we most need to come together, we’re told that human contact can kill us. Alarm bells are flashing everywhere as the dead pile up, the economy burns, and more and more people’s mental health deteriorates. This is the most severe and far-reaching global crisis that most of us who are alive today have ever experienced. Its a terrifying, alienated, and stressful time. It’s also no time to give up. No time to turn on Netflix, bury our heads in the sand, and wait for things to pass. Certainly not for anarchists, or anyone who calls themselves a revolutionary.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Anarchist Bookfaiirs, Where?

     Anarchist Bookfairs, great events for meeting like minded people, new people, swapping ideas, getting your nose into other people's literature and pushing your own. However, surely the whole idea is to bring new people to anarchism, not to fly around in the same circle. So where should they be held. In some back street squat, a small autonomous centre, a hired room in a local pub? I have always felt that we should be more ambitious and go as much in the mainstream as possible and meet the unconverted, the apolitical, the apathetic, the one searching for something different. We live in a capitalist society, so cost of course plays a part in where they can be held, perhaps we could all take a leaf out of the recent Manchester and Salford Anarchist Bookfair. 

     

One person's opinion from Anarchist News:

 

       The 9th Manchester & Salford Anarchist Bookfair was dedicated to Donald Rooum (1928-2019), illustrator and long term anarcho. His image of anarchism's three personas (the punk, the bomber and the academic) was used on the bookfair's flier, and a very nice flier it was too. While it’s true that Rooum's work is often associated with the red and black Freedom, it's less well-known that Rooum himself identified as ‘a Stirnerite anarchist, provided "Stirnerite" means one who agrees with Stirner's general drift, not one who agrees with Stirner's every word.’ I’ll come back to that later.
      After following my friend’s directions from the tram stop, I was surprised to find the venue this year was not the backroom of a pub or the basement of a ‘social centre’, but was a museum in the centre of town. Maybe this says something about anarchists' desire to move from the fringes; maybe it's about the public opinion of anarchists in 2019. Either way, the People’s History Museum couldn’t be further from the underground Euro squat aesthetic of last year’s venue. I'd heard rumours that it was going to be hosted at the university this year, so it sounds to me like the organisers were trying their best to move from the Partisan into a more accessible, more mainstream location, and were somehow able to come up with the large deposit needed to book a space like the PHM. As I met my friend in the museum's hall, they admitted they missed the dinge of previous venues, but I for one was glad to be able to see the books and faces in the sunlight, and to be able to breathe as I moved from stall to stall.
      There were around thirty stalls in total, including Freedom up from London, Active Distro from Bristol, AK Press from Edinburgh, and PM Press from the North East. The other stallholders ranged from definitely anarchist (Elephant Editions), through questionable (Anarchist-Communist Group), to definitely not anarchist (New Internationalist). Also present were MARC and Footprint, two local printers who have long provided anarchists with affordable zine and booklet printing; Advisory Service for Squatters keeping it real in the back corner; Hunt Sabs with their latest Saboteur magazine plus fox teddies(!), and many more. Looking at the lineup, one can't help but wonder whether it is really a ‘book’ fair or is, in fact, an ‘organisation’ fair under a different name. One curious friend who came along for the morning noted that ‘lots of people here are determined to make more anarchists’ - I told them to be glad they’ve never been to the London ‘book’ fair, where the organisations wanting to sign you up outnumber the book publishers/distributors two to one. Next year I’d like to see fewer membership forms and more zines, magazines, booklets and books.
      Alongside the stalls were a series of talks and workshops that I didn’t attend. The ‘Education Space’ included book launches by PM Press (‘Journey Through Utopia’) and Ruth Kinna (‘Government of No One’ on Pelican), and a Q&A from The Anarchist Party (sadly not a rave but an actual political party). I heard The Anarchist Party were given hell by the audience for ‘working with the enemy’, which seems kind of hypocritical considering how many of the organisations present directly engage with the state and capital as their modus operandi. Speaking of which, a talk by the IWW’s local branch was apparently planned but didn’t go ahead. The final talk of the day, and the busiest, was by D. Hunter about Lumpen Magazine. I regret missing this one - Hunter's work articulates the horror of the daily grind like no other I’ve read this year.
       Bookfairs in the UK are mostly the same rotation of stallholders travelling from city to city with mostly the same stock and having mostly the same conversations. I’m always on the lookout for people who are doing something different. If, like the late great Donald Rooum, they are more into Stirner than they are into Bakunin and Bookchin, all the better. This year I found three: Elephant Editions, Gay Plants, and Forged Books. Elephant Editions you know. The other two I’ll let you discover yourself. Enjoy, you rebels, and let’s hope the organisers can tempt out Return Fire next year.
        As the day came to an end, I sat in the PHM’s cafe and wondered why so few bookfairs have a space like this, where you can retreat from the fray and read your new books. Am I meant to wait until I’m home? I spent the last hour sat sulking over a coffee, a slice of toast and At Daggers Drawn. There was no official afterparty, but Radical Routes had an evening film showing nearby, someone called ‘MCR Punks 4 West Papua’ had a gig in town, and Partisan had a queer karaoke a bus ride away. Tempting as all three were, come closing time I said my goodbyes and, with a pile of books under my arm, disappeared into the frozen northern night.

Till next year.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

That Big Weapon, Solidarity.

       It is always encouraging to see people come together in solidarity against an injustice inflicted on one individual. Time and time again solidarity and direct action win battles where appeals to adjudicators, and lawyers fail, or drag out for ages adding to the injustice. Solidarity is a weapon we should always have in our minds it does win battles, and it creates bonds and builds confidence in our ability to take control of our own lives. Lots of little victories can lead to the one final victory when we abolish this vicious system of exploitation for profit.

Another victory though solidarity:

      Report from Little Village Solidarity Network who recently won back lost wages through a direct action campaign.
Thank you to everyone who helped us fight the wage thieving bosses at Jojo’s Milk Bar! They finally paid up last week, after nearly a month of struggle, due to the pressure our picket was putting on their business.
We more or less shut down their ice cream shop on the evenings of Saturday Aug. 3, and Tuesday, Aug. 6. They paid up on Wednesday, delivering a check for $545.00 to Federico Ramirez.

        It is important to emphasize that solidarity as it was manifested via collective direct action is what rendered these results possible. It wasn’t by appealing to attorneys or the department of labor. This is only a small sample size of what is possible if we organize!.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Couriers Unite

          Our corporate masters never miss a trick when it comes to cutting workers conditions and unloading their responsibilities. So along comes the "gig" economy, sold to the workers as freeing them up, allowing maximum flexible working conditions. Of course what they don't mention is that there is no sick pay, no paid holidays, no guaranteed income, and no protection if anything happens while you are working.  The bosses get a workforce that they have no responsibility for, no national insurance, no responsibility for accidents happening while on the job. It is a win win case for the boss. 

         The conditions that gig economy couriers work under can be dangerous, exhausting, and leave them struggling to pay their way. Most of them come out well below the living wage. However, Glasgow couriers that are tied into the UBER yoke are getting organised, fighting back, and demanding a fair deal. Though that desire in capitalism, is as rare as a two headed hippopotamus flying over Glasgow. That doesn't mean of course, that we should not get organised and take on the bosses for the right to decent working conditions.  

         Let's all get behind the couriers, and give them maximum support, and stand with them in solidarity, their struggle is our struggle.

Visit ann arky's home at radicalglasgow.me.uk

Let's Roar.

 

        Today approximately 1% of the world's population hold roughly 50% of the world's wealth and their share is growing, while the other 99% have to make do with a 50% that is ever shrinking. However, the total 100% of the world's wealth is not created by that 1%, it is all created by the 99% that see their share flow steadily up towards that 1%. Unjust, insane, unsustainable and totally unnecessary.

         As an individual the situation seems impossible to change, how can you are I make a difference, how can we as individuals take on the czars of the corporate world, and hope to win? The answer is we can't, not as individuals, we have to realise that we are in a class war, and the other side is well organised and show solidarity within their class. We have to do the same, organised solidarity, our only real weapon is our solidarity with each other. We have to link up in solidarity within our work places and across our work places, come together in solidarity in our communities and across our communities, we have to link hands in solidarity across those imaginary lines drawn by power mongers on the planet's surface, called borders, whose only purpose is to divide us into opposing camps, for the benefit of that 1%.

        It is only by the combined and unified will of all our people, that we can brake the chains of this dehumanising, degrading and greed drive system, that is responsible for racism, wars, poverty, and the destruction of our planet.

LET'S ROAR.

The problem's too big

the perpetrators unknown

you can't beat the system

all on your own.

So it's easy to withdraw

find your own little cage

turn a blind eye to the suffering

stifle your rage,

but the greed goes on

the poverty's still there,

you can't just leave it

for your children to bear.

Others feel as you do,

eager to put things right

but locked in isolation

it's a hopeless fight,

so don't sit in silence

behind a closed door,

your voice can help raise

a whisper to a roar.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

UK Slavery Is Alive And Well.

      The various workfare schemes slither their way through our society, and the government is hoping that this type of  unpaid labour will become the accepted pattern. You will leave school, try to get a job, find it almost impossible, sign on, and then be sent to some corporate greed monster, and work for six months for no wages, then back to signing on. The circle will be repeated ad infinitum. That way the corporate bosses have a large pool of unpaid labour, and that helps to keep wages down.

    The figure for unpaid slave labour in this country is approaching the 200,000. that's 200,000 people working all day and walking home without a wage. Who do you think gains? Failing to comply with this dictatorial slave labour plan results in your meagre unemployment benefit being stopped. This of course pushes you deeper into the cesspool of deprivation. Punishment for refusing to be a slave to some rich corporate greed machine.

From Boycott Workfare:    

⇓ There is a growing number of workfare schemes
⇓ Workfare is not voluntary
⇓ People on workfare placements are counted as "employed" in government statistics
⇓ Sanctions have dramatically increased
⇓ Workfare replaces jobs and undermines wages
⇓ The government is rolling out workfare on a massive scale
⇓ Workfare does not work
⇓ Workfare affects everyone

         There is a mass protest, 4th. - 12th. October, being organised against this humiliation of those people who can't find work, in a system that doesn't offer them any. It is time that we took this slave labour scheme by the throat and strangled it, before it strangles us.

 Again from Boycott Workfare:

     Forcing people to work for free through the threat of removing people’s benefits (sanctions) is unfair, unjust and wrong. In the week of action, tell the companies and charities who are profiting from this exploitative regime what you think of their involvement! Email, Tweet, use Facebook, phone them, protest, organise a flashmob: for a week of piling the pressure on workfare exploiters.

      We know these tactics work! Just look at how quickly Byteback IT had to pull out when you told them what you thought after George Osborne made the mistake of visiting them. This is just one of the latest in a whole list of businesses and charities that have also pulled out of workfare following our pressure.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk